Thor: Love and Thunder's scant 2-hour runtime meant it had to cram a lot of story in, and writer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson was tasked with helping Taika Waititi realise his vision. Given the filmmaker's habit of going off script, we have to imagine that was easier said than done, though it does sound like several major scenes and subplots were left on the cutting room floor.
This could go some way towards explaining the mixed response to the Thor: Ragnarok sequel, but there was still plenty to love about the blockbuster. Among those moments was the MCU debut of Hercules, with Ted Lasso star Brett Goldstein playing the Olympian.
Talking to Variety, Robinson confirmed that the stinger was a surprise to her and not a moment she wrote into the movie. "I saw that at the premiere with everybody else," the writer admits. "In the same way that I guess Taika didn’t know Thor was coming back, I did not know that Roy Kent was Hercules."
"I knew there was talk about Hercules. The name Hercules was not not said in conversations that I definitely, probably wasn’t supposed to overhear, but did," she continues. "So the minute I saw the beginning of the scene, I knew he was gonna be talking to Hercules. I didn’t know who they cast. But I was like, is this gonna be Hercules? I just knew that it was a thing that they were like, 'We’re gonna want leeway with this, so stay away from it.'"
During the same interview, Robinson revealed that Thor: Love and Thunder opened with Jane Foster's cancer diagnosis instead of Gorr the God Butcher's origin. She didn't share any other deleted scenes, and confirmed there are currently no plans she's aware of for her to return to the MCU.
As for Hercules, it does sound like Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has big plans for the character. Whether he'll return in the next Thor movie or elsewhere remains to be seen, but it appears the warrior is on his way to Earth. One popular theory is that the misguided God will end up joining the Thunderbolts.
Thor: Love and Thunder is now playing in theaters.